Run, boys! Run!

I am so proud of what my boys accomplished today at the Sherman 5K.

Jonah is finding real success in running. He improved his time by nearly 5 minutes and he is so proud of himself. I'm sure most of you know that Jonah is dyslexic. And I have found, with him, that it really takes having some success in one area to encourage him to do better in another. He is really proud of himself and of what he's achieving thru hard work and pressing on. I'm very proud of him too! I see that he could really take this sport and do something with it if he continues to do as well as he has in the last 4 months.

As for Noah, I'm more proud than I can say. Noah, bless his heart, is inherently lazy - just like his Mama. I'm the poster child for the law of physics that states "An object at rest wants to remain at rest." I would be a REAL bum if I didn't push myself. And Noah, unfortunately, has that in him as well. But I watched him today in that race. I was behind him, OF COURSE, and I was (thru my own pain!) able to watch his determination to press on. I would watch him run for a while and then walk. It was easy to see he was hurting. But in just a minute, he'd pick up and start running again. In my mind I was thinking, "Way to go buddy! Push thru!" And seeing that crooked leg just makes me want to cry every time. But watching him hop on that thing but keep on running did something to me that I can't explain.

You know, there are so many people in this world that rarely succeed in life. Most of those people have in common the inablilty to control their own bodies. I speak from personal experience when I say that conquering your own body is one of the HARDEST things to do! For ANYone. Take getting up early if you're not a morning person. Or going to bed at a decent hour when you're a night owl and would rather stay up. What about putting that fork down and pushing the plate away when you know you don't need any more? (I'm preaching to myself, there!) Or exercising when you HATE to exercise? And even shutting our mouths when we REEEALLLLLY want to rip somebody to shreds... but that's a different conversation all together! Conquering our own bodies leads to a certain amount of intestinal fortitude in dealing with other areas. In a determination to "accomplish" that maybe wasn't there before. I guess that's why I'm so excited to see Noah pushing himself to run - to improve his time- to beat a crooked leg in order to succeed. I know, if he continues to run, this is going to be something that will shape his character for years to come.

Who would have ever thought that the person who said "Running just to be running is dumb!" (me!) would become such a proponent of the sport in such record time. And to see this kind of strength being born in my children - and in myself - well that just leads me to say:

RUN, BOYS! RUN!

"Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain." 1 Corinthians 9:24